The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

2nd April 2007 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Ten Reasons why you should upgrade to Windows Vista

    In case you need persuading...

    Love it or hate it, you can't ignore Windows Vista. Fans of Apple's Mac OS X will tell you that all of the good bits of Vista have been blagged from the Tribe of Jobs but the fact remains that the vast majority of us use Windows XP so the question is simple, why the hell should we make the switch from Windows XP to Windows Vista …

    Reg Hardware 2 Apr 2007, 07:02

  • SMEs harbouring 300 pirate fonts

    Typeface maker gets tough with licensing

    The average computer in a small business has 300 unlicensed fonts installed on it, leaving that company exposed to legal action, according to a leading typeface company. Monotype says the scale and importance of font piracy is being overlooked. The company's Julie Strawson told OUT-LAW Radio, the weekly technology law podcast, …

    Small Biz 2 Apr 2007, 09:22

  • Privacy prevails in McKennitt case

    Lords deny author's request to appeal

    The House of Lords today refused an author permission to appeal a ban on her book, ending a case that will be seen as a landmark in the development of an English privacy law. Niema Ash wrote Travels With Loreena McKennitt: My Life As A Friend, but publication was halted when McKennitt won an injunction relating to certain …

    Law 2 Apr 2007, 09:43

  • YouTube chops Mexican beheading vid

    Drug cartels' online war escalates

    YouTube yesterday pulled a video apparently showing the beheading of a Mexican drug cartel member by a rival gang, Associated Press reports. The footage was the latest release in the online war of words between eastern Mexico's "Gulf Cartel" - with its private army "Los Zetas", led by Osiel Cardenas - and traffickers from …

    Bootnotes 2 Apr 2007, 10:07

  • EU spoils Blair's energy saving party

    Renewables, renewables, renewables

    Government plans to derive 20 per cent of the UK's electricity from renewable sources have been rather spoiled by news from the European Union that in fact 20 per cent of all energy should be green, not just the electricity. According to the BBC, this means the UK is only committed to a quarter of the European goal, so far. It …

    Physics 2 Apr 2007, 10:10

  • Tech sympathisers join ex HP boss in head-shaving protest

    Column The mad, bad world of April foolery

    One of the more astonishing non-tech news stories this weekend was the discovery of a hybrid "ling" or heather shrub, which has powerful Viagra-like properties. Equally astonishing, to those who knew her, was the discovery that Carly Fiorina has taken against the media and shaved her head as a sign of feminist solidarity with …

    Public Sector 2 Apr 2007, 10:17

  • Is BSM entering the mainstream with a software guarantee?

    Developers take note

    A question sometimes asked is "what do we need analysts for?" Well, according to Dr Jim White of Managed Objects, customers for new technology often select the short list for "requests for quotation" from the analyst's "Magic Quadrants", "Waves", or whatever. So, analysts help businesses choose sensible short lists for …

    Developer 2 Apr 2007, 10:20

  • MS plans emergency update to fix blinking cursor bug

    .ANI port in a storm

    Widespread exploitation of an unpatched Windows vulnerability involving cursor animation files over the weekend have prompted Microsoft to announce plans to release an out-of-sequence patch on Tuesday. A stack buffer overflow flaw in Windows' handling of animated cursor (.ANI) files, first reported last week, allows hackers …

    Enterprise Security 2 Apr 2007, 10:33

  • EMI and Apple ditch DRM

    Updated All you need is 20p

    In a rumoured deal between Apple Inc and EMI, the Beatles could soon be available to download from iTunes free from copy protection limits. EMI whetted Beatles' fans appetites yesterday with an invite sent out to sections of the media announcing an "exciting new digital offering". Jobs has been loudly dissing DRM (digital …

    Music and Media 2 Apr 2007, 10:49

  • Day dawns for Metasploit 3.0

    Interview H D Moore unveils the latest release

    The Metasploit Framework is a development platform for creating security tools and exploits. Federico Biancuzzi interviewed H D Moore to discuss what's new in release 3.0, the new license of the framework, plans for features and exploits development, and the links among the bad guys, Metasploit and the law. Could you …

    Security 2 Apr 2007, 10:52

  • Sapphire Radeon X1950 GT-based graphics card

    Review Cheaper than the X1950 Pro - but potentially as powerful?

    AMD launched the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro at the end of 2006, pitching it as a cut-down version of the X1950 XTX. It's now come up with a cheaper version, the X1950 GT, taking the technology below - well, just - the £100 mark. The Pro uses 12 of the 16 pixel processing pipelines - all in groups of four 'quads' - available in …

    Reg Hardware 2 Apr 2007, 10:52

  • Enthusiastic power users still a danger?

    Reg reader workshop How much freedom is too much?

    Some would argue that it all started with Lotus 123 back in the 80s. When the early spreadsheets emerged and users seized on them as a way of solving their own information requirements, IT's control of the organisation's data started to gradually slip away. We could put all of the security and integrity checks we liked into …

    Business 2 Apr 2007, 11:00

  • Telford dumps OAPs in garden waste

    Council will collect your unwanted grannies, on request

    Regular readers may recall the case of the Cumbria man who obtained a licence to dump his dead gran at the local tip - an enlightened service made possible by the cunning classification of dead relatives as "general domestic waste". Not to be outdone, Telford council is rather obligingly offering to collect locals' unwanted …

    Bootnotes 2 Apr 2007, 11:04

  • Wii wins in US during February

    Big sales lead over rivals

    Nintendo's Wii outsold both the Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3 in the US during February, the latest sales stats coming out of North America shows. According to market watcher NPD, some 335,000 Wiis were sold in the US in February. Microsoft sold 228,000 Xbox 360s and Sony 127,000 PS3s. Nintendo was just 20,000 units …

    Reg Hardware 2 Apr 2007, 11:10

  • AMD RD790 gets PCI Express thumbs-up

    Unannounced chipset confirmed

    AMD's anticipated top-of-the-line chipset, the RD790, has won the approval of PCI Express overseer, the PCI SIG, for its compatibility with version 1.1 of the standard. The RD790 turned up on a leaked chipset roadmap last month. It's expected to appear this summer to support AMD's next-generation Athlon processors, all of …

    Reg Hardware 2 Apr 2007, 11:32

  • VLT brings whole sky into focus

    Wider horizons for adaptive optics

    Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) have been celebrating their first pictures with the delightfully titled MAD: Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator. This little gadget (see picture) allows the scientists to correct for atmospheric turbulence in their observations, …

    Space 2 Apr 2007, 11:46

  • BetonSports founder arrested

    Bookie booked

    Gary Kaplan, the founder of BetonSports.com was arrested late last week in the Dominican Republic. Kaplan was charged with 20 felony offences in July last year. Other members of BetonSports' management - like chief executive David Carruthers - have already been in court. Carruthers was caught at Dallas airport on his way to …

    Law 2 Apr 2007, 11:48

  • Broadband Britain connects silent majority

    Bundles of fun

    More than half the UK adult population now has broadband internet access at home, according to data released today by communications regulator Ofcom. The watchdog's annual broadband market report said 13 million homes and small businesses are now hooked up, compared to 9.9 million a year ago, in a racket which netted ISPs …

    Telecoms 2 Apr 2007, 12:10

  • Brit plans world's highest mobile phone call

    Hello mum, I'm on the summit of Everest

    An intrepid British climber is planning to make the world's highest mobile phone call from the top of Everest, the BBC reports. Rod Baber is currently training hard in Kathmandu for his planned May assault on the 8,848 metre peak. He intends to attack the mountain via the tough north ridge - the only route which will allow him …

    Mobile 2 Apr 2007, 13:12

  • Blokes talk about sport and sex: official

    Pub chat poll shocker

    It's official: Brit blokes like to talk about sport, sex, and women while supping a pint, according to shock research outlined in The Publican. Chaps' main conversational priorities are: sport (64 per cent said they'd chewed the fat over the footie); their social lives (42 per cent); work (40 per cent); news/politics (40 per …

    Bootnotes 2 Apr 2007, 13:32

  • Disney expands mobile vision

    Despite Mobile ESPN failure

    Despite killing its Mobile ESPN sports-oriented MVNO last year, the Disney Group aims to step up virtual mobile network activities in other areas as part of a broad ranging strategy to use mobile systems to underpin its content business and marketing. In this way, the media powerhouse is showing the way that many heavily …

    Mobile 2 Apr 2007, 13:38

  • Games firm woos ISPs on shopping file sharers

    Wants standard grass fees

    Zuxxez, the games firm suing 500 UK file sharers, has begun negotiations to have ISPs cut the prices they charge for grassing up file sharers under court order. UK law allows ISPs to charge to cover the costs of retrieving the addresses of file sharers identified by snooping copyright holders. But the prices they charge vary …

    Telecoms 2 Apr 2007, 13:51

  • Spam: it sucks like a tarpit

    Trapping the pump'n'dumpers

    Spam sucks. That is the conclusion reached by a roomful of scientists at MIT on Friday after hearing a bunch of new research papers pitched at dealing with the problem. Before adjourning to the pub, the group voted on the best paper. The award went to Ken Simpson, founder and CEO of Vancouver-based Mail Channels. Simpson's …

    Spam 2 Apr 2007, 14:10

  • Glastonbury online ticket sales fiasco

    Mud, mud, in-glorious mud

    The annual stampede to buy tickets for the Glastonbury festival once again swamped the online sales site. Tickets went on sale from the official site, (GlastonburyFestivals.co.uk) via seetickets.com, from 09:00 BST on Sunday (1 April). Instead of being able to buy tickets, many would-be festival goers were confronted by a …

    Entertainment 2 Apr 2007, 14:20

  • ESA wants to send you to Mars*

    *A simulation of Mars, anyway

    The European Space Agency (ESA) is recruiting volunteers for a simulated trip to Mars. Wannabe astronauts will have to be made of sturdy stuff: the mission will involve being locked, with five other people, in a metal tank somewhere in Moscow for 500 days. The experiment is being organised by the Russian Institute for …

    Space 2 Apr 2007, 14:27

  • Tech support costs Carphone dear

    £15m budget blowout

    Carphone Warehouse (CPW) revealed it expects to spend between £10m and £15m more than expected on supporting broadband customers when it released Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to the London Stock Exchange today. It showed an eight per cent increase in total connections to 2.41 million. The company has 2.27 million broadband …

    Financial News 2 Apr 2007, 14:43

  • UK gov mulls child porn changes

    Watch out anime fans

    The Home Office is considering changing child pornography laws to include cartoon or computer-created pictures. It is currently an offence to possess indecent photographs or "pseudo-photographs" of children, but indecent cartoons, computer-animated scenes, and drawings are legal. The Home Office note announcing the …

    Law 2 Apr 2007, 14:44

  • Masturbating woman shakes Michigan Uni frat house

    Bushwhacking intruder makes herself right at home

    A Michigan University frat house will throw out two couches tainted by a mystery masturbating female intruder who used the furniture for an extended public self-pleasuring session, The Michigan Daily reports. The woman in question simply walked into Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house "without permission" last Thursday, "entered …

    Bootnotes 2 Apr 2007, 15:10

  • CTIA: Handset vendors flaunt their wares

    Comment Under shadow of market squeeze

    The largest US wireless show, CTIA, was held last week in Florida, but proved a relatively low key event in terms of major announcements, though as usual a huge statement of the overall weight and vitality of the wireless industry. The customary catwalk parade of new handsets, each model designed to push its vendor higher up …

    Mobile 2 Apr 2007, 15:17

  • EMI and Apple say DRM is so yesterday

    High quality downloads are go - 'cept for the Beatles

    Well, the Beatles hasn't joined the DRM-free Apple/EMI jamboree – at least not yet. Instead, today's announcement signalled the beginning of the end for DRM with EMI climbing into bed with Apple to offer high quality music downloads that can be used on any digital-enabled player. It's a strategy that will also help …

    Music and Media 2 Apr 2007, 15:38

  • Surfers protest wave power project

    You're killing the surf!

    Surfers based in Cornwall, by habit staunch environmentalists, have found themselves lining up against Wave Hub, one of the UK's first wave power projects. The installation is an experimental set up, being installed off the coast by local authorities and power companies. It will be used to test and develop new technologies to …

    Science 2 Apr 2007, 15:51

  • Virgin undecided on Sky court action

    Stalemate continues

    Virgin Media may not go through with its threat to take BSkyB to court this week, the firm has confirmed. Following the withdrawal of Sky channels from cable TV, Virgin gave Sky a 30 day deadline on 5 March, which runs out this Wednesday. Today, however, Virgin said it may not act this week. A spokesman said: "The way to look …

    Networks 2 Apr 2007, 15:52

  • Blog refuseniks facing the sack?

    Sony BMG UK adds blogging to the job description

    We've all heard about employees being sacked for blogging. But as the fad begins to wane, will staff soon be sacked for failing to blog? Last week, Sony BMG UK issued a new corporate marketing strategy. According to an official release from the group, Ged Doherty, chairman and chief executive of SonyBMG in UK and Ireland, said …

    Music and Media 2 Apr 2007, 15:54

  • US nuclear security agency missing 20 PCs

    Bombs away!

    Twenty desktop computers are missing from the US government department responsible for safeguarding technical secrets about nuclear weapons. According to a recent audit by the Energy Department inspector general, 14 of the PCs were used to process classified information. The audit also found the department was using computers …

    Enterprise Security 2 Apr 2007, 17:09

  • Comodo snags PSC anti-malware tech

    Desktop security push

    Comodo is buying the technology assets of second-tier anti-malware firm Privacy Software Corporation. Financial details were not disclosed. Comodo, which is best known for its digital certificate business, plans to use PSC's technology to bolster its desktop security portfolio. It will also continue to market PSC's NSClean, IE …

    Security 2 Apr 2007, 17:56

  • Google demolishes New Orleans - again

    Swift Google Earth update restores post-Katrina images

    Google has moved with something approaching lightning speed to replace images of New Orleans on Google Earth which had apparently airbrushed the effects of hurricane Katrina from history. The good burghers of the Big Easy were none too happy with a recent Google Earth and Google Maps update replacing previous candid images of …

    Science 2 Apr 2007, 18:07

  • CDW to vend StoreVault SMB box

    Just a phone call away

    U.S. e-tailer CDW has added StoreVault's S500 storage array to its shelves, the two companies announced today. StoreVault is a division of NetApp who's flagship S500 system is targeted at small and medium businesses. The S500 is a low-tier array that can connect to NAS, SAN and DAS boxes. It's a 2U, 12-slot system that supports …

    Storage 2 Apr 2007, 18:09

  • Keeping Lisp alive and practical

    ilc07 Conference report

    If you need someone to build you an extensible, elegant and demonstrably functional application in a hurry then the Law Faculty at Cambridge University is currently the place to be. The building, one of the modern steel and glass blocks that nestles close to the much-reviled Seeley History Library on the university’s Sidgwick …

    Developer 2 Apr 2007, 20:40

  • Transmeta declares war on employment

    Former CEO Ditzel dissed

    Transmeta continues to "streamline" the business, dropping approximately 10,439 pounds of employee. The chip IP licensing house removed 55 workers Saturday — primarily engineers and those in the company's production support operations. Four management positions were also shaved, consisting of the VP of operations and the VP …

    Financial News 2 Apr 2007, 22:11

  • Sun's Solaris success paves way for next-gen OS push

    Do tell

    Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz loves to splatter the media with the line that Windows, Red Hat Linux and Solaris stand as the only operating systems of significance in the server kingdom. We've spent the last few years struggling to appreciate the seriousness of that claim. Sun's declining system sales failed to inspire …

    Servers 2 Apr 2007, 22:21